family sailing on a beneteau first 38

Victoria

Whatever the state of the bank account, we are undeniably rich in friends.

We had a fantastic weekend in Victoria, BC, visiting folks we hadn’t seen since Tino was two days old.

The girls are no longer two years old.

Yes, we were just in Portland, home of hipster microbrews and hyper-local cuisine; but not having had a real job between us in over two years, we kept out of the sweet restaurants and stuck to pizza. Our friends took our budget into account, and fed us just as though we were luxuriating in the coolest dining spots.

Water taxi ballet in the inner harbor

Fan Tan Alley in Victoria

It was a bit of culture shock, after subsisting on Mexican beer for the better part of the year, but we quickly rose to the occasion when Ian stopped off at his favorite brewery to pick out some tasty beer for the weekend. So many environmental habits need to go a bit by the wayside when cruising, including conscientious refillable bottles; the denizens of Victoria have no such constraints, so we had three bottles to fill with local beer. Such a good system! Try before you buy, sample the goods, purchase what you need. Meanwhile, the kids were sampling some local, ice cream; we gathered them up and headed back to their lovely home for our first fantastic meal.

Another sign we are not in Mexico–bike-powered espresso cart

When our kids were babies, Kristina and I were in a six-mama hiking club; we toured all the local, county, and state parks, schlepping the little guys on our backs every week. Thank god I didn’t need to carry anyone the next day; our hike went basically straight up. The views were great, but our lazy boat butts were pretty challenged making it to the top.

Time for more ice cream, and more good food, while the boys played a complicated basketball-trampoline game out back.

It was really hard to say goodbye to these guys, without knowing when we might see them again. N has become a really competitive swimmer (she put in about three miles in the pool before that brutal hike), and as the kids all get bigger, it’ll be harder to pull them away for gigantic road trips–even for dedicated adventurers like our friends. Hopefully, they’ll be swinging through Madison, so we can repay them for their hospitality. Already planning a brutal hike.